Pigeons With Notes Under Wings Puzzle Investigators

FORT LAUDERDALE — Repeated discoveries of white pigeons with notes taped under their wings have prompted a police investigation.

''It's probably some kind of religious offering,'' said Sgt. Sherry Schlueter of the Broward County Sheriff's Office Animal Abuse Unit.

''It's definitely abuse. The animals cannot fly.''

The Wildlife Care Center, a non-profit animal clinic in Fort Lauderdale, takes in about 25 pigeons a year that were found with folded notes taped under their wings.

The notes are written in red marker. Most are illegible, Schlueter said. Much of the writing looks like a child's scribble - not words.

Two notes, including one found on Friday, had names on them, the sergeant said.

Crime analysts could not interpret the messages or find any clues to their origin.

Many of the birds have been found near the Broward County Courthouse and the county jail in Fort Lauderdale, Schlueter said.

The tape across the bird's feathers prevents it from flying. They are brought to the wildlife center by people who find them.

They come in thin and weak, said Dr. Deb Anderson, veterinarian at the wildlife clinic.

The center staff treats the birds, then puts them up for adoption because the pigeons can't be set free. Anderson said it is illegal to release non-native wildlife.

Religion studies professors Maureen A. Tilley from Florida State University and Thomas A. Tweed from the University of Miami were unaware of any ritual involving pigeons with messages.

Mark Paulhus, a former cruelty investigator for the Humane Society of the United States, said the notes may be placed by people who have developed their own interpretation of a religious ritual. Or perhaps, he said, it is unrelated to religion.

Whatever the motive, said Schlueter, it is animal abuse.

''It's a terrible to way to leave an animal - vulnerable, starving and dehydrated,'' she said.